The Bounce Newsletter 
| This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
Last night, we had four games. The Cavaliers beat the Magic 136-131 in a battle of who has tuned out their coach more. The Nuggets beat the Suns 125-123 with Nikola Jokić going for 23 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists. The Knicks survived a spirited effort by the Pelicans with a 121-116 win. And the Hornets beat the Kings 134-90. It was Sacramento’s third 40-point loss of the season. The most 40-point losses in a season is four. I almost expect the Kings to break this record with nine games left.
Advertisement
Misery Index
How are Mavs fans feeling post-Luka?
A little over a year ago, we debuted the Misery Index. It was a way of trying to figure out which fan base was experiencing the most pain that season. We used eight different ways to measure misery, and it led to the Dallas Mavericks running away with it. They scored 69 out of a possible 80, most of it stemming from the sudden trade of Luka Dončić.
On Sunday, we did a second version of the Misery Index. And the Milwaukee Bucks won (?) the honor (?) of most misery. I wanted to check in on the Mavs a year later and see how much their misery has either increased or decreased. A lot has changed in the last year, post-trade. So let’s run through the categories and re-score:
How bad is this season? It’s better than last season. The Mavericks haven’t been good for almost the entire season, but three very important things happened to make it not so bad. 1) Nico Harrison was fired as general manager. 2) Cooper Flagg is on the team. 3) They moved on from Harrison’s Anthony Davis vision by trading him. Score: from 10/10 to 7/10.
How frustrating have recent seasons been? Nothing will be more frustrating than the recent seasons, or maybe I should say just last season. The Mavs went from promising to contenders to “goodbye, Luka!” That definitely increases the frustration. Score: from 1/10 to 7/10.
Did they recently make a trade or move that infuriated the fan base beyond belief? We’re going to divorce ourselves of the Luka trade because obviously that’s the one. I’d argue the AD trade was more cathartic than anything. So it’s going to lower the number from last season. Score: from 10/10 to 8/10.
Are you still thinking about him? Of course they are. They’re all-in on the 19-year-old Flagg as the next guy, but watching Luka flourish with the Lakers and knowing it will get better there definitely sours things. Score: from 10/10 to 8/10.
Do they have exciting young players to distract you from the present? Absolutely. Flagg is the real deal. They lucked out in getting him with the No. 1 pic. Flagg is clearly a franchise guy. Score: from 10/10 to 2/10.
Is there immediate, tangible hope in the next couple of seasons? Definitely. With Flagg as the guy, the Mavs can now reshape the entire roster around him with a great long-term outlook. They will have a good draft pick this June, and then it doesn’t help them to tank because they won’t fully control their first-round pick until 2031. The turnaround will be swift. Score: from 8/10 to 3/10.
Could this be fixed with a coaching change? I don’t believe so. Jason Kidd divorced himself from Harrison, and he’s mostly done a good job as the Mavs coach. Score: from 10/10 to 7/10.
How deep is this thorn? Not that deep. It’s more of a fresh wound than a deep thorn. Getting rid of Harrison and having Flagg in tow is huge for trying to mend things with the fans and provide hope. Score: from 10/10 to 5/10.
The Mavs’ Misery Index has gone from a 69/80 to a 47/80. That’s how powerful it was to luck into Flagg as the immediate franchise savior — and more importantly, firing Harrison the same year he made the terrible trade. Now, if Luka wins a championship or two with the Lakers down the road, that will certainly add more misery. But for now, the Mavs fans are in a much better place. I wonder what it will look like for the Bucks in a year?🤔
Advertisement
The last 24
🙋 My bad. Paul George addressed the media for the first time since his suspension. He apologized for letting people down. Tony Jones has five keys for the Sixers to reintegrate PG-13.
{“endpoint”:”https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql”}
💰 Expansion talk. The NBA’s Board of Governors meets today and is expected to give the go-ahead to explore adding two more teams. What’s next for Seattle and Las Vegas?
🏀 Project B. An emerging global basketball league is eyeing men’s players, and LeBron James’ right-hand man is involved.
🏀 Terrible news. Moses Moody tore his patellar tendon Monday night. He’s done for the season.
🐻 Ja done. Ja Morant hasn’t played since late January. After an injection in his elbow, he’s officially shut down.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Bunched up
The Eastern Conference is a beautiful mess
We have a pretty impressive traffic jam happening in the Eastern Conference. We know the top four spots in the East will be the Pistons and either the Celtics then the Knicks, or the Knicks then the Celtics, followed by the Cavaliers. Cleveland probably isn’t jumping out of the fourth spot. But from No. 5 through No. 10 in the East, six teams are separated by 2.5 games. There is no way of predicting how this might turn out.
Here is the current order of these six teams, with strength of schedule remaining:
5. Raptors (40-31): 18th.
6. Hawks (40-32): sixth.
7. 76ers (39-33): 15th.
8. Magic (38-34): 16th.
9. Hornets (38-34): third.
10. Heat (38-34): 19th.
There isn’t even much of a deviation between the six remaining strengths of schedules. The tankers they’ll face could influence this a lot. Miami has three such games (Indiana and Washington twice). Charlotte has Indiana and Brooklyn. Orlando has Sacramento, Dallas and Chicago. Philly has Indiana, Washington, Chicago and Milwaukee. Atlanta only has Brooklyn and Sacramento left. Toronto has Brooklyn, Sacramento and Memphis.
Advertisement
John Hollinger wrote about the ridiculous possibilities of how the “Mid-6” could shake out. The Southeast division title is still up for grabs. And while most of us don’t care about a division championship, it actually matters in giving a team priority in a tiebreaker. The fact that we still have Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte and Miami all in the mix here with the division on the line makes this even more absurd.
Hollinger also put together the scenario of a six-way tie for fifth. The Hornets would get the No. 5 seed, because they’d win the tiebreaker against their division partners and claim the Southeast. Then their three-way tie with Philly and Toronto would give the Hornets the advantage, because they’d be the only team with a division banner. Cumulative head-to-head matchups would still need to shake out the other five spots.
Of these six teams, Atlanta and Charlotte are currently playing the best. Orlando and Miami are playing the worst. And the Sixers … well, you never know with them. We should all be rooting for the chaos of a six-way tie, because that’s never happened before and we might not see it again.
Statements made
To play or not to play. What say the NBPA?
The NBA Players Association is there to make sure every player in the NBA is supported. Unions are necessary for worker protection, even with high-profile and massively compensated professions. Of course, the NBPA is going to support its members, even if the messaging becomes a little contradictory.
Recently, our Eric Nehm reported that the Bucks want to shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the two-time MVP is pushing back on that. He wants to continue to play. The Player Participation Policy is there to make sure teams don’t sit stars for rest on nationally televised games or for tanking. The NBPA issued this statement supporting Giannis yesterday.
“The Player Participation Policy was designed by the league to hold teams accountable and ensure that when an All-Star like Giannis Antetokounmpo is healthy and ready to play, he is on the court,” an NBPA spokesperson wrote. “Unfortunately, anti-tanking policies are only as effective as their enforcement; fans, broadcast partners, and the integrity of the game itself will continue to suffer as long as ownership goes unchecked. We look forward to collaborating with the NBA on meaningful new proposals that will directly address and discourage tanking.”
Wanting to extinguish the ability or incentive to tank is an important next step for the NBA. However, the current rules set up those potential incentives to tank at the end of a season, so the Bucks aren’t wrong for wanting to help their future, which Giannis may not even be a part of after this summer. But participation rules are new with the NBA, and the NBPA doesn’t outright love all of them.
Advertisement
For example, look at the 65-game minimum rule for players to qualify for season awards. It’s been under fire all season, with Cade Cunningham being the most recent case for abolishing it. The NBPA issued a statement about that too.
“Cade Cunningham’s potential ineligibility for postseason awards after a career-defining season is a clear indictment of the 65-game rule and yet another example of why it must be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries. Since its implementation, far too many deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota.”
I am very on record that the 65-game rule needs to go away. Don’t reform it. Abolish it. And technically, the PPP and the 65-game rule are not the same. But the spirit of those rules is the same. In a way, it feels like the NBPA is talking out of both sides of its mouth. In a way, that’s its job if these rules are affecting members in different ways. It should support the players. It’s just funny that these statements were issued within minutes of each other, out of nowhere, and their spirits contradict one another.